Bankers have been slammed after a new report found they have changed very little since recession crippled Ireland.

A report prepared for Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, found that customers are surfacing because the top bankers still feel it is more important to “firefight” and protect the bank and themselves instead.

And Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty claims bank chiefs should be held accountable for their actions.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Donegal, Mr Doherty claimed that this was only “the tip of the iceberg” in relation to bankers’ behaviour.

He said: “The Central Bank’s report states that there is a distance left to travel for Irish banks in reforming a culture which brought our economy to its knees a decade ago, and which continues to place profitability above citizen welfare.

“However, for the Central Bank, the government, and the state’s banking class, this is the tip of the iceberg.

"If we are to reign in the unaccountable and often destructive practices of Irish banks, there must be a reckoning.”